THE SCENE AT THE COURTHOUSE ‘Hey, hey, hey, goodbye!’
They belted out a ditty to the tune of a Peter, Paul and Mary classic, heckled some and greeted others with thunderous applause.
As the throngs of press migrated outside the Will County courthouse following Drew Peterson’s guilty verdict Thursday afternoon, dozens of court watchers pounced on the opportunity to publicly express their disgust for the former Bolingbrook cop.
“Nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, hey, hey, hey, goodbye,” they jeered while defense attorneys tried to address reporters on a patch of grass county officials had accused TV reporters of damaging (and had billed them $35 to replace the sod).
“Loser,” a man yelled at the attorneys. “Blah, blah, blah,” another shouted.
The crowd lining the sidewalk grew giddier when several motorists honked their horns in an apparent attempt to show their support for the jury’s decision to convict Peterson for murdering his third wife.
But the group saved its most affectionate gestures for Will County State’s Attorney James Glasgow, showering him with applause and a plea that he remain top prosecutor. “Four more years,” they repeated. “I’ve never had a case where I’ve had members of the community on a daily basis approach me and call me by my first name, tell me that they’re praying for me,” Glasgow said.
Cincinnati restaurateur Jeff Ruby, who had been a one-man sideshow during the trial after he rolled into Joliet in a luxury bus, just couldn’t stay away despite his earlier arrest for mouthing an F-bomb at Peterson in the courtroom.
“F--- you,” he said in the direction of a van he believed transported Peterson away from the courthouse Thursday.
Two women held signs that read: “Common Sense. Drew is Guilty” and “Put the cocky one away! Give justice to Kathy and Stacey” — complete with the wrong spelling of Drew Peterson’s missing fourth wife’s first name, Stacy.
At one point, the mass broke out in a song to the tune of “Puff the Magic Dragon.”
“Drew the lady killer no longer has a star. The devil got his day in court and prison isn’t fun,” the impromptu choir sang.
“Drew the lady killer is off the streets, you see. The judge and jury said go to jail and throw away the key.”
And capturing the bizarre fruition of one of the most followed local cases in recent history were the cameras on the ground and in the air.
“I’m yelling,” Stacy Peterson’s sister Cassandra Cales said when asked to speak louder. “There are helicopters.”